Traffic and life on the road in Chennai

This is a discussion on Traffic and life on the road in Chennai within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Originally Posted by MX6
Yeah. They'd rather get killed than dirty. When they get killed, they don't know they are ...

Yeah. They'd rather get killed than dirty. When they get killed, they don't know they are dead. When they get dirty, they know it very well. And to carry that stench and dirt around. So they'd rather get killed.

Half dead? How about that situation? Living with losing hand/legs/eye & what not?

Chennai people for SURE, they're scared of stagnant water more than showing fearless face in front of speeding car. Trust me, they don't have guts doing that in front of MTC buses.

Offlate I've been observing, no one is even thinking of yielding way for motorcyclists too. Am I talking about footpath? Absolutely NO; places I'm talking about are city roads & state highways & too much of people spending time on speaking over mobile & riding. I'm noticing too much of people doing this for last 2 days.

Happened to me yesterday at Sholingnallur junction. As usual the traffic was piled up at the junction while coming from the Thoraipakkam side. I was waiting for the signal to turn green when I heard a siren. Found an ambulance some distance away by looking in my rear view mirror. Unfortunately the way that people drive in Chennai does not leave much space for ambulances to go through. I mean you'll have 6 lanes of traffic on a three lane road!!

Well the signal turns green and a few good samaritans make way for the ambulance. It is now behind me on the lane next to me. The car in front of it does not seem to be giving it space so I slow down and stop to let it come in front of me and proceed. The driver does so and is immediately followed by atleast 10 other vehicles racing behind it as if their life also depended on it.

They were basically just using the path the ambulance created and following it recklessly. Couldn't they have just waited like everyone else?

Only in the hottest of weather*. Our AC is usually directed at face level, rather than down on the legs, and pointed at my wife, rather me --- it's the Indian who likes to be cool; the foreigner came here to get away from the cold!

*but the flexibility of the thing beats trousers any day, one can always cover or uncover a bit

Just a view of the world which swings between despair and light-hearted cynicism --- and yes, a love of a surreal idea.

Seriously, though: this is what advertising people do, yes? Find the week spot and use it.

One of our cleaning ladies will not remove cobwebs on certain days of the week. Right: how do we take those attitudes and turn them into road safety?

I am not an advertising or marketing man, so I have no idea what the next step would be, but I see the government is already using religion to target bikers: have you seen the Ravana posters, with the caption "you only have one head"?

Spread the rumour that it is bad luck to follow an ambulance as it means that they will be in one.

People won't listen to sense, but they love superstition!

Very hilarious & I'm in full of

I fully agree, it will become an instant hit. Add to that if newspapers spread news stating that someone who followed ambulance had to be taken into the same ambulance for few days, that will become instant hit.

This Ambulance following i have seen from a long time, i used to guess they might be relatives of the one transported in the ambulance. One can do a painting of 'Yama Dharma Raja' on the ambulance rear, but then sentimental people will never differentiate an ambulance from a mortuary van.

This morning at 8:15 am on OMR while on my way to work, just at the first signal towards Sholinganallur after the Palavaram/Thoraipakkam Radial road intersection signal, there were barricades - two of them on the right-edge of the road and one on the left edge a little away, you would have all seen this configuration that the police uses to cut speeds on empty city lanes at night. These barricades are sometimes left overnight as is and it creates lot of traffic snarls just because the police guy comes in late in the morning. And no one gets down his car to move it away. Everyones just trying to squeeze in through that narrow gap. The other day, I saw a lady get down from her car and move it out. I thanked her. Today I did it and got thanked by another guy behind me. It reminds me of the after-lunch scene at marriage halls or after-movie scene in theatres - people try to squeeze out of one door just forgetting (just going thru the motions, just saying "if I get out its fine", it just takes 5 sec to unlock the other part of the door and help more people to get out.)

I noticed that all vehicles going towards Shol from TIDEL were crawling. On reaching office, a colleague told me that a trailer had got stuck, causing the snarl. Any updates? I couldn't make out what was going on while on my way because I was inside a packed T51 (Chennaiites would know what and how it is)

@vinod_namakkal: I've had to request to the traffic policeman, at times. And it's always a better and SAFER way rather than squeezing your way like other morons on two-wheelers.
PS: I don't ride/drive often in Chennai because my vehicles are not here